“Invest in women: Accelerate Progress” is the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day. Marking the day, the United Nations issued a statement where it said gender equality and the well-being of women are more important than ever if we are to create a prosperous and healthy planet.
The United Nations says 75 per cent of the world's countries could cut spending on service sectors by 2025 due to conflict and rising commodity prices. Women and girls will suffer the most if that happens. The UN has shown several reasons why investment should be made for women. The first reason is that investing towards women is a human rights issue.
The UN also reasoned that there is no alternative to invest in women to ensure poverty reduction, implementation of gender-based economic programmes, establishment of a green economy and a caring society, strengthen feminist organisations and increase the presence of women everywhere.
Let’s look at the situation prevailing in Bangladesh now. The women of Bangladesh are a role model of resilience. Just imagine the role of women during any natural disaster. Women's contribution to disaster risk management, not to mention the protection of children and assets, is recognised all over the world. Female students are consistently doing well in secondary and higher secondary examinations. Not only that, their progress in the job and service sector is also noticeable. The girls have been bringing us success in sports regularly. Prothom Alo reported on Women's Day last year that the presence of women in the administration is gradually increasing.
Now, let’s have a look at the flip side. Our constitution has recognized five fundamental rights. The constitution mandates equal rights for all irrespective of caste, creed and colour. But, has the discrimination against women gone in all these years? According to a UNICEF report published last year, girls and women in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are at the center of the nutrition crisis. UNICEF remarked about Bangladesh that the girls of this country are trapped in the vicious cycle of malnutrition.
The women have brought about revolution in the garment sector. Study reveals that the women garment workers face 51 to 60 per cent wage disparity in different regions of the country. Our society still cannot accept women as inheritors of wealth and property, let alone ensuring equal rights here. The number of seats for women in hospitals is still not equal to men’s. Albeit a rise in number, the women in administration are still not given the responsibility of managing large projects. Female players are paid less than their male counterparts although the majority of them come from backward families of the society defying scores of barriers.
We are yet to provide safe sanitary facilities for women. Women and girls are raped in trains and buses. Public transport remains a nightmare for them. Bangladesh ranks eighth in the world and first in South Asia in terms of child marriage. Prothom Alo just yesterday published a news sourcing from a World Bank report that says Bangladesh is only above Afghanistan among the countries in South Asia in terms of women's rights in the workplace.
The state of women revealed by different studies, surveys and indices is distressing. We consider the issue of women’s equal rights an exigent and everyday issue. Without showing empathy for women on 8 March, let’s work in keeping with gender equality on other days of the year too. Because, investing in women is tantamount to investing in the country and nation.